Menudo

From Ken Rosenthal, the sane man's Peter Gammons:

Former Astros general manager Gerry Hunsicker could become a leading candidate for the Nationals' G.M. position once MLB sells the team. Hunsicker, according to an industry source, would be of "high interest" to former Braves executive Stan Kasten, a longtime insider who many expect will be part of the eventual ownership group. Hunsicker also is well-known to another prospective owner, [Loudoun Cabal leader and pathetic loser] William Collins, who tried to purchase the Astros in 1996 and relocate them to northern Virginia [and failed miserably]. Pat Gillick, former G.M. of the Blue Jays, Orioles and Mariners, is another potential candidate familiar to Kasten. The Nationals' current G.M., Jim Bowden, also figures to remain in the mix.

I briefly talked about Hunsicker's credentials back in November when he resigned from the Astros. Let's get in the Way-Back Machine and check it out:

Hunsicker would be okay with me. His record is mixed (leaving Bobby Abreu unprotected in the expansion draft is a doozy), but he seems to have drafted well (Roy Oswalt, Lance Berkman, Wade Miller). The Astros made the playoffs five times over his nine years of his tenure, and you can't argue with that.

I'll stand by that. The Astros haven't won a Series or even a pennant, but they've been a regular playoff contender for years now, and they've done it largely with homegrown players. I'd rather have Hunsicker in charge than Gillick, and you know how I feel about Bowden.

Remember my rant about projection systems and their abuse? There's further discussion along those lines at the Fourth Outfielder Baseball Blog and an accompanying BTF thread. Bascially, Tom Meagher points out that when Baseball Prospectus projects performance, they're trying to measure both talent and usage (playing time, position), which is flat-out impossible. This does not stop BP from basing months of columns around their worthless projections, which is one of the reasons I decided to let my subscription lapse. So now neither Dayn Perry nor Will Carroll is getting any of my money.

Nationals Pastime is moving! Come March 15, John will be joining the wacky cast of characters at All-Baseball, which is replenishing itself after Mariner Musings, Rich's Beat, and Next Year took off. It's a nice neighborhood, except for that weird guy down the street with all the cats.

Speaking of John's weird neighbor, a hat-tip to the slayer of Bulgars for pointing me to this. The great thing about Will Carroll is that in the three or four hours it takes him to muddle his way far enough through the labyrinth of the English language that he can post a few paragraphs worth of run-on sentences, he can make me laugh harder than Gallagher or Rob Schneider can in entire careers of flailing and smashing. Particularly delicious are his Statements on Blogging and his Exhortations to Improvement. I can't be bothered to find the one where Carroll, a student of the Gammons school of murky prose, told us to stop blogging and start writing, but this might be even better:

Why can’t someone do some actual reporting or at least fact-checking?

That's right, Will "DC's Bid is Dead" Carroll is telling us to fact-check. Will "It's the Grays" Carroll wants us to insure accuracy.

Why can’t someone do some actual reporting or at least fact-checking?

I hope you like seeing that, because I'm thinking about posting it every day just to make sure the statement's audacity is not forgotten.

Why can’t someone do some actual reporting or at least fact-checking?

Pete Rose!

Finally, I was in the Post! It was a good piece, but I'd like to qualify a couple things:

• I love the homers. Seriously. We disagree about a wide range of things, but we're all on the same side here. I hope I didn't come off as too much of jackass in that article, and I want to assure you that as skeptical I am of the Nats' chances, I'm firmly in the"If they're in last place, who cares?" camp.
• "Inning-Endy" was coined by Chris at Capitol Punishment. It's brilliant so I stole it, but he came up with it.